>> Monday, October 16, 2017

Samahang
Ilocano chief warns members: No hazing

BAGUIO CITY—“Do not violate the anti-hazing
law”, this was a stern warning from Samahang Ilokano Global Alumni Council
(SIGAC) national chairperson Mark Anthony Baliton during his message recently.

Addressing the delegates to the SIGAC
National Executive Council meeting held here recently, he added, “the group
will not tolerate violators of the law. If any members violate the anti-hazing
law, we (the national council) will not help you.”

Baliton
issued the warning on the note that a law student from the University of Sto.
Tomas recently died, a victim of hazing during their fraternity rights.

The
death of Horacio “Atio” Tomas Castillo III, at the hands of alleged
members of the Aegis Juris law fraternity is now subject to a Senate inquiry
regarding the incident and bring forth possible amendments to the country’s
Anti-Hazing Law.

According
to Baliton, Brgy. Capt. Benjie Macadangdang, SIGAC- Baguio-Benguet Council
chairman is currently designing new rules and regulations for “service”
guidelines before being accepted to the fraternity.

Baliton said, SIGAC, will no longer
honor its age long practice initiation or hazing, instead, new recruits or
neophytes will be obliged to do public service before becoming a full pledged
member of the fraternity.—SIGAC press
release

Father, son rule Baguio Scrabble

BAGUIO CITY -- Father
and son Mohammad and Bobby Suma took the Baguio Day Scrabble Tournament by
storm as they placed first and second recently at the Baguio Museum.

Father Mohammad
was at his best as he topped the expert division with a 12-4 card and a spread
of 427 for the sole place at the top.

Son
Bobby, on the other hand, shared the second to fifth spots with three others
but took the highest spot with an eye popping 1,101 spread, the best in the two
day tournament backed by the city government of Baguio.

Ferdinand Lucas
was at third place with spread of 597, while retired banker Robbie Onate was
fourth with spread of 128 and closely followed by retired police colonel Tony
Malonzo.

Anna
Tabora, meanwhile, edged three others via a higher spread to win the
novice/student division. Tabora finished with eight wins along with
Orlando Pocya, Jupiter Batong and Crichel Lao but she had a slight edge in
spread.

Tabora
had spread of 380, 11 up on Pocya and 62 more on Batong as the three took the
top three spots. Lao settled for fourth spot after spread of 291.

Three
players had seven wins each but Gillian Rae Billeson took the fifth spot with
spread of 169. Sheree Nolasco came in sixth with spread of 95 and Michael
Angelo Subas was eighth with spread of 52.

Ric Malilin had
the highest score of 516, Huub Luyk had the highest bingo of 118, while
the latter’s wife, Becky, had the l;osing score of 414. – Pigeon
Lobien

No texting for
Central Luzon cops on duty

CAMP
OLIVAS, Pampanga – Central Luzon police officers are no longer allowed to send
text messages while on duty, based on an order issued by the regional police
director Chief Supt. Amador V. Corpuz.

Corpuz said the “no
text policy” is effective immediately in the entire region.

Corpuz said a number
of police officers are often preoccupied with sending text messages or fiddling
with their mobile phones while on duty.

“The no text policy is
my marching orders and the alibi that they are making report in texting is
already an old alibi,” Corpuz said.

He said the public
feels safer if there are police officers on duty who are alert and not
preoccupied with texting.

“There will be greater
challenges ahead and we need to build a stronger community; you are old
enough to do what is right,” Corpuz told his men. -- Mar T. Supnad

Wi-fi
connections eyed for 2,300 buses

At least 2,300 provincial buses and their
riders will benefit from the free, high-speed wi-fi connections and other
services that will be provided by communications giant PLDT Inc. to
members of the Provincial Bus Operators Association of the Philippines (PBOAP).

The PLDT said over the
weekend that the partnership, forged through its corporate business unit PLDT
Enterprise, would involve providing PBOAP members with wi-fi connectivity,
closed-circuit television monitoring and vehicle tracking through the SmartBus
suite of services from the Smart Biz LTE bundle.

“Giving the commuting
public easy and fast access to the internet through our Smart Biz LTE can take
their mind away from the daily grind. It will also enable them to
perform tasks online while in transit,” the PLDT said.

“Our partner bus operators said the Smart Bus
suite gives them the assurance that their buses, personnel and the riding
public are secured,” Jovy Hernandez, senior vice president and head of PLDT
Enterprise, said.

PLDT’s SmartBus
product enables bus operators to comply with the government’s plan to modernize
the country’s public transport system.

PH’s bronze in
Archery won with blurred vision

SAN
FERNANDO CITY – She has blurred vision, constantly wears glasses in school or
at home and can hardly read without them.

She is 19-year-old
Mary Queen Ybañez who took home the bronze medal in Archery at the recent the
2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Interviewed by this
writer in Barangay Madayegdeg, this city, last Monday, Ybañez said she got into
the sport at an early age when her vision was perfect.

Struck by astigmatism
(blurred vision) in her teens, she had to wear corrective glasses.

Still, she continued
training herself to hit the target 70 meters out even if international
competitions meant having to do it without the aid of her spectacles.

On competition day,
Ybañez recalls how she had to trust her pulse. As to her vision, she said:
“Binabase ko na lang po sa kulay ’yung target, kahit malabo sa paningin ko (I
had to base the target on the colors, since my vision is blurred).”

Ybañez together with
her recurve team, Kareel Hongitan from Baguio City and Nichole Tagle from
Dumaguete City, gave the Philippines its 4th bronze in Archery at the SEA
Games.

Her vision might have
been blurred, but something remains crystal clear in Ybañez’s memory: “It was a
great feeling to plant the Philippine flag on the podium. I never expected to
win on my first-ever SEA Games,” she said.-- Erwin G. Beleo

Kalinga 4Ps get rice
aid

TABUK
CITY, Kalinga – More than11, 000 Pantawid Pamilya program beneficiaries in the
province started receiving rice subsidy from the program.

Lorna Lumiwan, 4Ps
Provincial Link, disclosed the Dept. of Social Welfare and Development released
the rice assistance for January because the period was covered under the
“suspension of evaluation on compliance” due to super typhoon ‘Lawin’.

But starting February
until end of the year, release of rice aid will be back as compliance-based,
Lumiwan said.

Under the 4Ps program,
indigent beneficiaries receive monthly cash benefits provided they comply with
conditions set on health, education and attendance to family development
sessions.

Pantawid families are
required to have regular health monitoring at rural health units, qualified
children should be in school and undergo regular family development
sessions. -- PIA Kalinga

Central Luzon OFWs to
be hired as teachers

CITY
OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – The Dept. of Education in Central Luzon announced
that it will be hiring 43 returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to teach
in different schools in the region.

Michelle Catap-Lacson,
DepEd3 Project Development Officer II said the 43 returning OFWs will be given
permanent teaching positions in public schools near their residences in the
provinces of Aurora, Bulacan, Bataan, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.

“They will be
automatically given permanent teacher items, and be assigned to schools with
shortages,” she said, adding that 25 teachers will be assigned in the
elementary level while 18 will be assigned in the Junior High School level.

She added that the
Schools Division Offices have been instructed to conduct thorough interview and
demonstration teaching and address noted gaps through the conduct of teacher
trainings and other apt interventions.

The
hiring of OFW-teachers is under the “Sa ‘Pinas Ikaw ang Mam at Sir” (SPIMS)
Program of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in partnership with
DepEd, which was launched in 2014 to assist OFWs who are passers of the
Licensure Examination for Teachers (LET) working abroad as professional
teachers or household service workers to be employed as teachers when they
return to the country.

--
Franco G. Regala

Tabuk City ups drive against
minor drivers

TABUK CITY, Kalinga
-- The City Public Order and Safety
Office has intensified its campaign against minor drivers amid reports of
high violations.

POSO
Dionisio P. Falgui III reported their office had recorded 1,911 traffic violators
in the city from January-June, mostly minor drivers and driving without
license.

This
explains why road accident is the top cause in cases of physical injuries in
the city police report, Falgui said.

In line
with the campaign, mobile check points along the city’s main thoroughfares
has been intensified. Because of strict traffic regulation enforcement,
the POSO had collected P574,350 in penalty fees for the period.

But Falgui said
collection of penalty fees is just secondary to their mandate of assuring
public order and safety.

We impose
penalty because we want drivers to follow proper traffic rules to avoid
accidents, he said.

He appealed to parents
to cooperate with the authorities by preventing their minor-children from just
going on fun-driving without the assistance of licensed drivers. -- PIA
Kalinga

Ban on sale of tickets mulled in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY – The local legislature
has passed on first reading a proposed “anti-scalping ordinance” in the Summer
Capital.

Authored by
councilor Leandro Yangot, Jr., the measure is applicable to all local residents
and individuals operating with or without ticket offices or official booths
within the city’s territorial jurisdiction.

Scalping is the
mass purchase and resell of tickets at more expensive prices while a scalper is
one who sells airline, bus, theater, concert tickets and similar undertakings
with or without profit outside the ticket office or official booth or place
designated for the purpose.

The proposed
ordinance makes it unlawful for any scalper to sell airline, bus, theater,
concert tickets and similar undertakings with or without profit outside the
ticket office or official booth or place designated for the purpose.

It also prohibits any person to
finance, manage or operate scalping which is pernicious or inimical to public
interest.

Violators of the measure’s
provisions shall be meted a fine of not more than P5,000 or by imprisonment of
not more than three months or both, upon the discretion of the Courts. – Gaby Keith

Kalinga
farmers learn ratooning technology

CITY
OF TABUK, Kalinga -- The Provincial
Agriculturist Office educates farmers on the ratooning technology to increase
rice production.

Joe Casibang, Kalinga
rice program coordinator, said ratooning could add at least 40 percent of the
average yield per hectare to farmers.

Under
the technology, farmers are taught to apply some interventions to palay plants
left out during harvest and could still get additional yield. Farmers just
apply additional two bags of urea per hectare compared to the usual 8-10 bags
of fertilizer per hectare in the regular cropping.

Casibang said the
ratooning period runs for about 60 days, which is actually the regular cropping
interval, before the ratooned palay is ready for harvest.

The technology is applicable
to both hybrid and inbred rice. Rice farmers get an average of 120 bags of
palay per hectare.

A 50-hectare demo-farm
is being used for the technology in this City, the province's major rice
producing area. -- PIA Kalinga

DSWD
sets 30,000 family food packs for rainy months

BAGUIO
CITY – Dept. of Social Welfare and Development in the Cordillera Administrative
Region has set family food packs for disaster augmentation this rainy season
particularly for landslide-prone areas
in the region.

DSWD-CAR regional director Janet Armas
said 30,000 food packs have already been brought to provinces for distribution
in case of disasters.

She said 6,200 food packs are in Mountain
Province; 5,000 in Ifugao; 2,642 in Abra; 1,500 in Apayao; and 15,601 at their
warehouse in Puguis, La Trinidad town in Benguet.

The training was to
enable pig raisers gain more profit in their backyard livestock endeavor by
formulating their own organic feeds using ingredients and materials that are
abundant and indigenous in their places rather than relying on commercial feeds
which are very expensive, said PVET training coordinator Ferdinand Dunuan.

By adopting organic
farming that includes feed formulation to reduce feed cost,
they can produce not only animal meat products which are safe and fit for
human consumption but also earn more profit because organically produced farm
products nowadays are in great demand.

Dunuan
lectured to participants on animal husbandry, issues on bio-organic inputs and
good agricultural practices.

Gilbert Caclini, also
of PVET, demonstrated the preparation of the feeds using the indigenous
materials with the hands on participation of the farmers so that they can
learn and experience on the spot organic feed formulation.